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| The photo that made us fall in love |
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| Happy Boy! |
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| His short legs make him a poor swimmer! |
God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. Genesis 1:25 (NIV)
Sai will be a year old this weekend. It is hard to believe that ten months have gone by since he joined our household. He is not only our first Corgi, but our first small dog, but he made himself right at home. Some people think that Corgis are all one breed, but they are actually two separate breeds, the Cardigan Welsh Corgi and the Pembroke Welsh Corgi. Sai is a Cardigan Welsh Corgi. The Queen of England has Pembroke Welsh Corgis. The obvious difference in the two Corgi breeds is their tails. Pembrokes are generally born without a tail, but if they have one, it is docked. Cardigans have a tail which they wave like a flag wherever they go! While I read that the Cardigans are supposed to be a little bigger than Pembrokes, Sai is smaller than the Pembrokes that train at the same dog school where we go. He weighs 29 pounds but seems petite to me, but then, we have always had big dogs. He is a big dog in a little dog’s body. He keeps right up with the big dogs, sometimes outrunning them. He is a tough little boy and can jump in the back of the truck though we try to keep him from jumping out not to put stress on his back. The books all say that Pembroke’s are more social and less territorial than Cardigans and that Cardigans are more of a herding dog than Pembrokes. They also say that Cardigans bark more and are more active. I don’t know anything about Pembrokes, but I can say that Sai is very social, loves people, often rolling over on his back to get his belly rubbed when he meets someone new. He is a herder though, and I often find him swinging from Cory’s collar as he grabs on and she runs off with him hanging like a necklace around her neck! He learned to stay away from the horses when he was a puppy and one of them just gently swiped him off his feet. He does not nip at us like some of the books say that they do, but we would never allow that anyway. He also does not bark much, but then, we are comparing him to a Dobie and a Chessie who goes “Whoo Whoo Whoo” all the time. Sai is very alert and always watching what is going on around him. The interesting thing we have found out about Sai and I don’t know if this is typical of the breed is that he is very “catlike”. He likes to be on the back of the couch or on a chair looking out the window. He will jump up in our laps when we sit down, particularly when we first come home from work. Most of the time, he follows us from room to room, but does not have to be touching us, just wants to be near us. He likes to be on the bed with us, but is sneaky about it because he knows he is not supposed to be up there. He waits until we go to sleep and joins us! As for training, he is clever and will do what you ask as long as it is what he wants to! I have him enrolled in Basic Obedience now and he is doing well. He is great at heeling and is learning to sit and go down though he would rather not. He is also good with the other dogs. To be honest, I am surprised at how much we are enjoying our Cardigan Welsh Corgi and think that we will probably always have one in our lives right there along with our Chessies. For years we were convinced that Dobies were the only breed for us, but in the last few years have added two new breeds to our household which we are very pleased with. Just goes to show you can teach an old dog new tricks!
I know just what you mean! We had a dachshund for about a year and loved her greatly but she was already very old when we got her. Now we have Lois, who is young (14 months) and bouncy and also thinks she is a big dog. She loves to play with the two big ones and not only can she dish it out, she can take it too. She loves to sleep with me but every now and then she'll sleep with my son instead. Having a small dog is a totally different experience!
I love Sai – a Welsh Cardigan corgi may be in my future!